We all have those games that have a special place in our hearts, be it fantasy, sci-fi or historical battles, and Warren has found his new miniatures wargaming love. So the plan is we’re going to be tagging along as Warren builds up a Flames of War army and from the look of it he’s planning to run the Axis with mountains of heavy armor…

Helping Warren with his journey back through the dusty pages of history we have David one of our local World War 2 fanatics.

QUIT OVER STEPPING WARREN!! One at a time please….. I hate when one persons interupts another when they are talkiing. aaaaaaarrrrrrgh!!! STHU!! And dude!, quit looking at your self in the monitor………….sigh. All of a sudden, I’m very tired. I’m going to bed.

Great video! Interesting, always been curious about the game. Impressive box too and did a bit of googling and the points value of the Germans is just shy of 900 with the Allies just over 1000. Apparently the FoW tournament scene is 1750 so those points are comparable to 40k. Just hammers home the value of that box that you’re actually not very far at all from having a full army.

Guys, I don’t mind when you discuss game mechanics, but if you don’t know and even don’t bother to learn history, please avoid it’s discussion, ok? Tankograd??? 1 rifle for 2 men??? T-34 is ‘basically a tractor’??? It looks like that guy in glasses learned history from Hollywood films and comics.

And, btw. We are close to Victory Day now (8 or 9 May, in different countries it’s different date), and I want to remind you, that Soviets lost so many people (and other Allies much less) because all major land battles were fought on Eastern Front from 1941 till 1945 and Nazists basically tried to annihilate all Russians (try to learn fate of Brit prisoners of war compared to Russian prisoners, and how Nazis killed millions of civilians in Poland and Russia).

Please be more respectful for all losses and war effort that Soviets sacrificed to crush Nazis and ultimately conquer Berlin.

Dude, Before you say someone’s facts are wrong you might want to double check, Tankograd is a real place, it’s actual name is Chelyabinsk, and became known as Tankograd due to Stalin moving production of the T-34 and katysia (sp) rockets.

History is written by the victors… Don’t you know we all still live and breathe free air by grace of America (f*@k yeah!)?

Don’t know too much about, history I’ll confess, but I do know that it was Russia, not the western forces, that gave Hitler’s forces their first major defeat in Stallingrad and, as I understand it, that’s seen as the turning point which would ultimately lead to their defeat and it was the Russians who stormed Berlin ultimately leading to their surrender.

Arguably we have communist Russia to thank for our capitalist freedoms that we enjoy today

I have trouble disassociating the Stalin-era Soviets from gulags, purges and all other sorts of equally despicable acts.

Guess that’s why I treat FoW as a fantasy game the same as any other. Enjoy the ‘Hollywood films and comics’ along with Flames of war as just entertainment. If we really wanted to get close to the reality of things then the idea of a game based on warfare is pretty horrific.

I think that’s the big problem with historical wargaming isn’t it? Dissociating playing a game with what actually happened. In fantasy or sci-fi you can have a bit of in-theme/character banter but if you’re playing Germany it’d be in extreme bad taste to crow about Mengele having just secured some fresh subjects, for example. This isn’t a no-moral-consequences fantasy, it’s something that actually happened with real people deeply affected. I’d think you’d have to be able to distance yourself from the bigger picture and hone in on just the tactical, gamey side of it to enjoy it and not get too caught up with the who-did-what’s.

It depends what sort of game you want to play. It is less a problem if you are recreating a battle or a small section of a battle. “What happens if this occurred would it have changed the outcome?”

Even a made up scenario doesn’t bother me too much tbh. I am still able to be very aware of the terrible acts that took place in the name of grotesque ideologies. At the human level of soldiers fighting, it is suggested that troops fought not because of patriotism, but because they did not want to let their mates down.

cf Joanna Bourke. An Intimate History Of Killing: Face To Face Killing In Twentieth Century Warfare

As long as someone is not into the barbarism of Fascism or indeed Stalinism it is possible to hold the gameplay separate from the wider consequences of the brutality. In fact it may be no bad thing to play wargames if it teaches you that in a contest between flesh and bone and hot metal travelling at speed, there is only one winner. Better still if you get into the wider context of warfare and learn that it is better to be humane than a nasty brutal bastard.

Just watched the show and was initially irritated by Dave, BUT he knows his stuff, so he is forgiven. Aside the interruptions with Warren, he grew on me to the point that i look forward to future shows. Well done BOW in finding these new presenters. It must be hard to be put in front of the camera for 45mins and present constant material during this time; I find it difficult to speak for 10mins!

I’ve had a German late war lurking for years and this has prompted me to dig out and see what can be done with it….

Just a note on respect and this whole thorny issue; I don’t think anyone was being disrespectful about the casualties – it certainly didn’t come across as that to me. Personally everyone has a level of wargaming they can approach; Personally i won’t touch ‘modern’ warfare games as I used to serve in the army and it would be morally wrong for me to rein act what my collegues have/(are!) going through. However, I have no objection to others playing these games. It’s all about respect and from what BOW has demonstrated over the years is that the respect is there.

I am a historical buff though not when it comes to WW2. I’ve also hovered around FoW without ever taking the plunge. I even own Open Fire and have glued all the minis together. I wasn’t sure what to expect with this series but I found the video to be informative on the game and the period and really enjoyed watching it. Thought Dave did a great job, very informative and clearly knows his stuff.

As an aside on the 2D terrain. Whilst you probably won’t want to use it long term, it’s great for aerial games like Wings of War.

hello table gaming fan well to deffend dave and his annonsment on the t-34 and “1 rifle on 1 men” well warren are not into FOW so dave just tell him in an easy understanding way so warent can understand it. anyway in sovjet ther was low on ammo and rifle at the war so the ones that did not get any rifle had to run after ome with rifle, then he died the other picked the rifle up. see “enemy at the gate” and that movie warren are talking about are Heroes of Telemark” and thanks to the Norwegian homefront the Britts managed to blow up Rjukand heavy water train transport on the ferry, they blow up the factory true, but that was a miss blow

Wow. Was starting to visit the site less frequently after MERCS week as you are (quite rightly btw) featuring games I don’t play (Malifaux) or have lost complete interest in (40K). BUt you got me again. Last month I bought Open Fire boxset and my buddy also bought one. We swapped bits as you would expect and I now have 16 Sherman/Firelfy, 2 platoons of US troops (Which I can’t fully field but thats ok).

We have played our first few games and as Warren pointed out, haven’t felt the need to buy anything else just yet. Though I did buy a full-size rulebook complete with hobbybook and forces book (A must have imo).

My buddy bought a Panzer IV platoon but with just the contents of my 2 boxes I taught him that the Brits Shermans were up to the task.

Back to checking the site daily. Looking forward to the next vid.

And leave Dave alone, he is presenting the history in a lite version as we don’t come to BoW to learn the indepth details of history (check the History Channel for that).

Stug could be the best German tank in the game for there points. but everyone that plays Flames is that “Stuarts Wins the WAR”

I will love to follow this series but trust me when I say dont fool yourself that you need big powerful german tanks becouse they are just point sink mostly. (I have played the Jagdtiger Companie, 3 tanks, 4 AA-tank, 1 platoon of infanteri and some kick ass rocket launcher, they cant stop the Bazzoka spam!)